A Germline Mutation is any detectable, heritable variation in the lineage of germ cells. Mutations in these cells are transmitted to offspring while those in somatic cells are not. Germ is an informal term for a disease-causing organism, particularly bacteria (as in germ warfare). ... Cells in culture, stained for keratin (red) and DNA (green) The cell is the structural and functional unit of all living organisms, and are sometimes called the building blocks of life. ... This article has been identified as possibly containing errors. ... In biology, offspring are the product of reproduction, a new organism produced by one or more parents. ... Somatic means to refer to the body. ...

This distinction is most important in animals, where germ cells are distinct from somatic cells. However, in plants, the reproductive cells in a particular flower will be derived from the same meristem as the cells in that flower and on the stem leading to the flower, which is a different population of cells than those that give rise to the other flowers on the plant. Single-celled organisms have no distintion between germline and somatic tissues. Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anenomes) Placozoa (trichoplax) Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Meristem is a type of embryonic tissue in plants consisting of unspecialized, youthful cells called meristematic cells and found in areas of the plant where growth is or will take place - the roots and shoots. ... Clivia miniata bears bright orange flowers. ... In common parlance, a stem is any elongated, usually narrow, extension or supporting structure of an object. ... ... In biology and ecology, an organism (in Greek organon = instrument) is a complex adaptive system of organs that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life. ...

In animals, mutations are more likely to occur in sperm than in ova, because a larger number of cell devisions are involved in the production of sperm. The signifier sperm can refer to: (mass noun, from Greek sperma = seed) a substance which consists of spermatozoa and which is a component of semen (mass noun) semen itself (informally, count noun with plural sperm or sperms) a single spermatozoon (= sperm cell) sperma ceti (Latin ceti, genitive of cetus = whale... A human ovum An ovum (loosely, egg or egg cell) is a female sex cell or gamete. ...

See also

• Germline